Page:The reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor (IA b21971961 0001).pdf/22

viii There is a common theme of declamation, particularly among those who are very little employed themselves, and that is, the idleness of the poor.—How far this is exclusively imputable to the labourer, let those judge who have seen him working by the piece, and not by the day.—I do not mean, by the distinction, to admit any culpable degree of idleness, in those who work by the day; but in task-work, where the earnings are proportioned to the degree of labour and energy employed, I have often wished it were possible to restrain the poor man from injuring himself by excess of exertion;—the fatal effect of which I have too frequently seen.

Another imputation on the poor is drunkenness—an odious and pernicious vice, not confined, I fear, to any particular class of men.—Upon this subject, it must be a very great satisfaction to every friend of his country, that the fatal and poisonous custom of dram-drinking is not now so noxiously prevalent among the lower ranks of life